Lost Hikers Tracked To Remote Ranch

Thanks to a personal satellite tracker, two young men were found safe, but cold Tuesday night at a remote Young Ranch.

The pair started out for a day hike on the Reynolds Creek Trail, south of the Young Road, leaving their vehicle at the trailhead earlier in the day.

Somewhere along the hike, the pair got lost and started walking south, down the creek.

Eventually, the men reached a ranch, but no one was home. Exhausted, dehydrated and unsure of where they were, one of the men hit the button on his Spot, a small device that when activated sends out a distress signal. Around 5:45 p.m., the International Emergency Response Coordination (IERC) Center in Houston received the signal and notified the Gila County Sheriff’s Office in Globe of the men’s GPS location.

Search and rescue volunteers and sheriff deputies had an estimate of where the men were, but could not reach the ranch because of three locked gates.

“The IERC provided the sheriff’s office regular updates that led the officers to a location where the two were found huddled up for the evening,” according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office phoned the ranch’s owner who drove in and opened the gates around midnight.